OMAD and protein / fiber / micronutrient intake

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Right now, I'm experimenting with a one-meal-a-day regimen. I tend to feel better on a low-carb diet than the others that I've tried. While I don't think I have any major metabolic issues, beans, grains, sugars, and starches do tend to leave me on the foggy / bloated side post-consumption, while food like nuts, avocados, and olive oil are much closer to the nootropic anti-inflammatory end of the food spectrum for me. Every time I run the experiment, it's quite apparent how much better I feel and sleep on the lower-carb diet with elevated ketones. While my lipids look good, there is some concern over eating so much fat in a sitting (occasionally north of 200g for a meal on a 2700kcal activity day.)

The problem I'm seeing on cronometer is that my calcium intake is often lacking -- some days, it's only around 400 mg (dark leafy greens.) My protein intake is also on the lower side, at around 50-60g (nuts + eggs / meat), and fiber clocks in around 25g. This is about what I can fit into a reasonably huge dinner. If I space this out over an 8hr window or so, I can more or less double the numbers at a similar caloric intake with more food volume.

I'm curious if it would make sense to use something like a vegan protein powder to do a sort of low-carb veg-rich shake (with added fiber?) to boost the numbers, or if there are any other hacks / supplements / foods that come to mind to balance out this eating window / macro ratio. Or, if this is of little concern, assuming I'm lean and fit. Thoughts?

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Calcium: there are some naturally Ca-rich mineral waters which we discussed in othere threads. they are a valuable aid as a Ca supplement, you should search your own market, I can only tell you what I found here in Italy

Protein: I think a modest amount of plant-based isolated protein blended with soy milk with natural flavours (example, orange zest or skins) and a little stevia is a very pleasant drink I experimented. You can add psyllium powder to boost fiber content.

Yes, the main drawback of a single meal is the sheer bulk. I cannot do that, my stomach will stay bloated, my heartrate will increase exponentially and I would feel horrible. The benefits of a sigle day meal must surpass the drawback otherwise it's not worth it.

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I hadn't considered mineral water, that could be a great tip. I'm surprised it wouldn't fall under the potentially hazardous umbrella of a calcium supplement, like the calcium carbonate you would find in say soy milk boasting "More calcium than milk!" (yikes) I get a decent amount of Ca from almonds and spinach, but it's debatable how much of that I'm able to absorb. I do supplement magnesium with my meal, which could tip things further to the lower side (although I've also read it paradoxically improves uptake.)

I have read that thyroid hormones can be among the largest disruptors for lipid balance wrt cardio health, where CR does tend to push things toward the lower side. With male hormones / thyroid activity in mind, are foods like soy & flax of any concern or are they largely seen as beneficial? As an alternative to plant-based isolated proteins, what's the consensus on gelatin / collagen as a low-methionine source of aminos and glycine?

This was an interesting study from a couple months ago, where whey protein (possibly a useful source of calcium and glutathione-boosting cysteine?) had a much different effect on mTOR than I would expect, while the other amino acids ratios are fairly similar to common plant-based protein options: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466539/

Edited May 14 by sirtuin

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Michael Rae mentioned gelatin in the thread on methionine restriction:

Quote

In practice, a high-protein, low-methionine diet is one composed of a lot of non-grain vegetarian protein. All legume proteins are good, and lentils and favas are exceptionally noteworthy as being high %protein, low-Calorie, and unusually low-Met and low leucine even for a legume (see here and here on leucine moderation), per gram of protein and per Calorie. Dairy (aside from whey) is moderate in methionine; Quorn, despite being of vegetal source, is not very low — and not just because of its eggwhite content: the vegan version is ev is also pretty acceptable (certainly compared with meat).

Eggwhites, however, are very high-Met.

Additionally, tho' not enamored of vegans,gelatin﻿is a very screwy protein, which contains no Trp and very little Met indeed﻿; it is so messed up that it shouldn't be a major component of the diet (especially not if it isn't otherwise protein-packed), but if you add a small amount of supplemental Trp to gelatin or sugar-free Jell-O, the near absence of Met turns into a bonus﻿.

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I have read that thyroid hormones can be among the largest disruptors for lipid balance wrt cardio health, where CR does tend to push things toward the lower side. With male hormones / thyroid activity in mind, are foods like soy & flax of any concern or are they largely seen as beneficial?

Isoflavones are regarded as beneficial if intake is not excessive. The threshold is not well defined. One gallon soymilk per day has resulted in acute negative symptoms, whereas the equivalent of 15 grams of soy protein per day is regarded to be all right. Michael Rae has cautioned about flaxseed use, which can be substituted by chia seeds though. I eat both, since the lignans in flaxseed exhibit probably hormetic effects.

One of the largest pro vegan male bodybuilders, torre Washington, says anecdotally that he has been eating so many soy products without negative effects. He declares to be natural and probably is.

Isoflavones are believed to compete with androgens to saturate androgen receptors so their use is theoretically preventive against prostate cancer.

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This was an interesting study from a couple months ago, where whey protein (possibly a useful source of calcium and glutathione-boosting cysteine?) had a much different effect on mTOR than I would expect, while the other amino acids ratios are fairly similar to common plant-based protein options: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466539/

I've read the article (quickly) but the result baffles me. Phosphorylation of S6k1 (which triggers ribosomal protein synthesis) is a consequence of mTORC1 activation:

Now, the most known biochemical property of why proteins (at least, cow's whey protein) is that they are very rich in Leucine.

Leucine is probably the single most important factor in mTORC1 activation. So, a food rich in leucine which decreases S6K1 phosporylation is kind of an oxymoron.

Also, S6K1 appears downregulated in liver but upregulated in muscles:

Which should be a typical result of exercise, where muscles sequester Leucine after a workout and AMPKinase deregulates mTORC1 in teh liver and other organs.

Where the rats exercised? Did they move around more in response to more amminoacids? Why the result is different in different tissues? Is goat/sheep whey composition very different from cow's whey composition?

It's comical to see "Fruit punch with calcium citrate malate" in a serious academic paper on improving the nutrient density of a vegetarian diet. If that's going to make the list, why not just include "calcium tablets." Chinese spinach looks off the chart -- I wonder if that means there's a ton of oxalate, or if this is my solution. I don't think I've come across the stuff at my local grocery store.

In general, I tend to avoid dairy and stick closer to a paleo-like diet. While my lipids look fine on a high fat diet, they don't look great on a high saturated fat diet. The simple trick that I found to achieve stellar lab work was to ditch the cheese, butter, and coconut oil. It was a simple trick that brought my LDL down into the 70s while eating a ketogenic diet. So, I've ended up with a mostly vegetable covered plate with a bit of seafood / lean meat / eggs since I find these much easier to digest than beans and grains. I don't eat a ton of meat, but it's enough to patch the hole that would exist if I was just trying to run around on broccoli and almonds. Kefir does look like the micronutrients would fit my goals, although I could do without the 12 grams of sugar (if I'm going to eat sugar, I'd prefer something like blueberries rather than lactose, galactose, etc.) Perhaps I'm being overly picky in my selection and something like calcium-carbonate-fortified almond milk would do the trick.

Thinking more about micronutrients -- do you one-meal-a-dayers make any effort to get sodium or potassium in during the fast (say if you're going to go for a run and lift weights?) I would imagine that a low-carb diet would benefit from a higher sodium intake, though it seems like a problem if you eat an entire day's sodium in a single sitting.

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I tend to avoid dairy and stick closer to a paleo-like diet. While my lipids look fine on a high fat diet, they don't look great on a high saturated fat diet.

While I agree about high-saturated fat diets, I was only suggesting a very modest amount of kefir which would add only minimal saturated fat, while possibly having many other healthy properties (eg. anti-cancer effects). Cf. Chris Kresser: Kefir: The Not-Quite-Paleo Superfood https://chriskresser.com/kefir-the-not-quite-paleo-superfood/

That 12g of carbohydrates is for a full 240 ml of the Lifeway product, not the half cup I suggested, but I can see how even 6g or less might be unwelcome in a low-carb diet.

The EPS [ exopolysaccharide] kefiran is produced by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens (Kooiman, 1968; Wang et al., 2010) from kefir grains, which are composed of proteins, polysaccharides, and a complex symbiotic microbial mixture (Witthuhn et al., 2005; Jianzhong et al., 2009). These microorganisms grow in kefiran, which is a polysaccharide matrix consisting of glucose and galactose. Despite good kefiran production by L. kefiranofaciens alone, it has been observed that the addition of Saccharomyces sp. to the culture improves the net quantity of kefiran, illustrating the importance of the symbiosis between the bacteria and yeast that are present in kefir (Cheirsilp et al., 2003).

Lactic acid bacteria can synthesize homopolysaccharides or heteropolysaccharides. The synthesized homopolysaccharides are glucans or fructans, which are composed of only one type of monosaccharide (glucose or fructose, respectively; Van Hijum et al., 2006; Badel et al., 2011), whereas the heteropolysaccharides contain different types of monosaccharides in different proportions (mainly glucose, galactose, and rhamnose), (De Vuyst and Degeest, 1999; Ruas-Madiedo et al., 2002).

Similarly to lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus sp. also produces glucan and fructan. The homopolysaccharides show a much higher performance compared with heteropolysaccharide production (Welman and Maddox, 2003; Badel et al., 2011).

The heteropolysaccharides excreted by Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus helveticus contain galactose, glucose, and rhamnose as the main monosaccharides, with other monosaccharides being present in smaller concentrations. They are also highly branched with different types of linkages, and their denominations are complex and generally dependent on the main monosaccharide (De Vuyst and Degeest, 1999; Badel et al., 2011).

Kefiran is an EPS classified as a heteropolysaccharide comprising glucose and galactose in high concentrations, and it is classified as a water-soluble glucogalactan, which makes it suitable to be used as an additive (Wang et al., 2008, 2010). Kefiran has excellent rheological properties and can significantly improve the viscosity of lacteous products by favoring and maintaining gel properties and avoiding the loss of water during storage (Rimada and Abraham, 2006). With respect to the biological activity of kefiran, several studies have demonstrated that this EPS can be used as a nutraceutical, as described in Table 3.

Kefiran suppresses antigen-induced mast cell activation.

Abstract

Kefir is a traditional fermented milk beverage produced by kefir grains in the Caucasian countries. Kefiran produced by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens in kefir grains is an exopolysaccharide having a repeating structure with glucose and galactose residues in the chain sequence and has been suggested to exert many health-promoting effects such as immunomodulatory, hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic activities. Here we investigated the effects of kefiran on mast cell activation induced by antigen. Pretreatment with kefiran significantly inhibited antigen-induced Ca(2+) mobilization, degranulation, and tumor necrosis factor-α production in bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) in a dose-dependent manner. The phosphorylation of Akt, glycogen synthase kinase 3β, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) after antigen stimulation was also suppressed by pretreatment of BMMCs with kefiran. These findings indicate that kefiran suppresses mast cell degranulation and cytokine production by inhibiting the Akt and ERKs pathways, suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect for kefiran.

No Cheating with Cysteine
As I've noted earlier, the rodent MetR studies involve diets that are not only extremely low in Met, bu contain no Cys at all. This turns out to be quite important. Some people have wondered if you might be able to get the benefits of MetR while minimizing the side-effects by consuming some Cys. Instead, consumption of Cys clearly impairs the metabolic effects of MetR.